Autodesk Heats Up VFX Work with Flame 2015

LAS VEGAS, NV – At the National Association of Broadcasters (NAB) Convention 2014, Autodesk unveiled Flame 2015, the latest iteration of its toolset for high-end visual effects and creative finishing, with new creative tools, faster performance, and an end-to-end 4K workflow to meet the needs of today's high-end post-production facilities.

Used by the best artists to deliver amazing results in high-end commercial post production for over two decades, Flame 2015 takes a huge technological step forward by addressing key customer requirements for higher quality, faster performance and innovative creative tools. Together with the Flame application workflow, the new features will allow Flame artists around the world to continue delighting their clients.

Flame 2015 now supports the addition of a second GPU card in the Flame workstation. Background Reactor helps accelerate rendering by allowing artists to send their shot, sequence, or batch setup to the second GPU for rendering while continuing to work interactively on certain other tasks in the foreground. Background Reactor requires two NVIDIA Quadro K6000 GPUs (for HP Z820 workstations) or two NVIDIA Quadro 6000 GPUs (for HP Z800 and Z820 workstations).

Flame 2015 boasts new tools that can help artists exceed customer expectations:

Replica: a new creative tool in Action allows artists to easily and interactively create, manipulate and animate cascading effects using a single cloned object; and

Matchbox enhancements: enhancements to Matchbox: the ability to add Matchbox effects directly to shots and transitions in the timeline and the ability to protect shader code with packaging and encryption.

The 2015 version of Flame takes the unified modern application workflow to a new level - creating tight integration between freeform desktop reels, timeline and batch while introducing a dynamic Library view into the one-of-a-kind Flame workflow. Furthermore, artists can now perform complex editorial and effects work on batch sources in the timeline while monitoring the impact on the batch compositing tree in a new batch context view.

Flame Premium provides a powerful creative combo with Flame and Lustre together, and now the 2015 release expands the offering with two additional companion products that are completely compatible with the Flame Premium workflow: Flare and Flame Assist. Flare is a shot-based visual effects application, used to help augment the creative capabilities of Flame Premium workflows. Flame Assist is a Mac-based, timeline-centric assistant station that can be used to take on a variety of tasks related to starting and completing Flame Premium projects.

Both Flare and Flame Assist are available as part of the new Desktop Subscription flexible payment model. Available exclusively to Flame and Flame Premium customers, pay-as-you-go pricing for Flare and Flame Assist software is available on a quarterly or annual basis.